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Welcome to the Hamari Boli Wiki What is "Hamari Boli"? "Hamari Boli" (Our Language) is the new name of Hindi-Urdu, the Lingua Franca of Desis worldwide. With over 1 Billion 1st and 2nd language speakers, it is the second most spoken language in the world! As the most widely spoken language across South Asia and among 30Million+ Desi diapsora worldwide, Hamari Boli is the living testament to the diversity and inclusive spirit of the South Asian Sub-Continent, gratefully acknowledging the richness and diverse unity of the Desi Culture as evident in the meticulous amalgamation of indigenous and foreign cultures from the early Indus Valley Civilization to later Aryan settlers to the Middle Vedic Civilizations to the Afghan and Turkic period to the British Raj to modern Day India, Pakistan, Bangladesh -entire South Asia indeed- and the Diaspora Desis and their descendants spread all over the world. Simply put, Hamari Boli is re-unified & modernized Hindi-Urdu written in Roman alphabet, with a combined vocabulary drawn from both Standard Hindi and Urdu, regional desi languages, with generous helpings of English as exemplified by "Hamara Cinema", i.e. the world's most prolific cinema, The Bollywood :) What is the Hamari Boli Initiative? Inspired by "Aman ki Asha", The "Hamari Boli Initiative" is a full-scale "Language Planning" Enterprise aimed at 'Hindi-Urdu' a) Script, b) Style, c) Status & d) Lexical Reform and Modernization; *Graphization (Romanization) *Lexical expansion & modernization (reuniting/combining Hindi-Urdu vocabulary and unifying literary canon, technical vocab modernization) *Style reform (simplified language accessible to widest possible audience as exemplified by Bollywood) *Besides being a bonafide Applied Linguistics enterprise, Hamari Boli is also an apolitical initiative to; *Finally ENABLE opensource collaboration --otherwise IMPOSSIBLE-- among Devanagari, Nastaliq & Roman readers *Create People-to-People Communication & Collaboration Platforms where Desi scholars, students, professionals and everyone interested cooperate in real time on crowd-powered and open-source endeavors that are of equal importance across both sides of the border. *Reunite the Desi Lingua Franca facilitating cross communication across borders and bring Desi people from around the world together in cooperative endeavor for the benefit of all. *Provide an apolitical environment to scholars and researchers to observe & study popular interaction, analyze sentiments, identify best practices, report problem areas and suggest solutions. What is the "HB Standard"? Although Hamari Boli embraces the whole Hindi-Urdu spectrum, based on our experience at Khan Academy Hamari Boli, we are following and advocating some golden rules for language used in mass media and education, this is what we call the HB Standard '''and it encompasses three major language planning domains i.e. Lexicon Style #Use neutral vocab (Hindustani) as much as possible (like Bollywood) as in "Nahaana" for 'taking bath' instead of Urdu 'Ghusl Karna' & Hindi 'Ashnaan karna' #Use English words wherever more familiar (as in 'School' for Urdu 'Maktab' and Hindi 'Vidyala') or wherever a common common word is not available. #All technical terms (science, maths etc) should be exclusively as per internationally recognized English conventions. e.g. Maths or Mathematics (even tho a common neutral word is available i.e. 'Hisaab' in addition to Urdu 'Ilm-e Riyazi' and 'Ganit Vidya' ) Script Roman alphabet have been used for writing Hindi-Urdu since 1700s. Hundreds of works inclduding scores of Grammars and Dictionries were published by pioneer linguists and philologists like Dr. Gilchrist, J. T. Platt, Duncan Forbes etc using several romanization schemes. Most of the earlier schemes used diacritics to map indic phonemes to roman graphemes. Both Survey of India and Survey of Pakistan use simpilified Hunterian Transliteration System for Indic Romanization. Several modern systems such as ITRANS have been around for a while too, however, no one system or standard has gained wide currency since there's no 'oficial' attention. People intuitively follow the coventions evolved out of the application of hunterian scheme to the local accent of Hamari Boli. Although Hamari Boli embraces the whole Hindi-Urdu spectrum, based on our experience at Khan Academy Hamari Boli, we are following and advocating some golden rules for language used in mass media and education; #Use neutral vocab (Hindustani) as much as possible (like Bollywood): As in 'Hisaab' for Mathematics instead of 'Ilm-e Riyazi' or 'Ganit Vidya' #Use English words wherever more familiar (as in 'School' for Urdu 'Maktab' and Hindi 'Vidyala') or wherever a common common word is not available. #All technical terms (science, maths etc) should be exclusively as per internationally recognized English conventions. Azad Scheme for Hindi-Urdu Romanization' For now, we'll also be starting with modified simplified Hunterian Scheme (in Public Domain), as it only involves alphabet, available on every keyboard & keypad. However, since the very idea is "Open Language Planning", other suitable schemes and suggestions will also be evaluated and deliberated here. Through community input and collaboration, we hope to refine and evolve an even more detailed system over time. # Why are we doing it? Hindi-Urdu is actually one and the same language divided artificially for socio-cultural and politico-religious motivations. But this knowledge is not popular understanding and to this day, the divide plays a major role in communal identification in Indo-Pak. However, linguistics by & large is in agreement over their joint status. We're working to bridge the divide by bringing the whole range of Hindi-Urdu together (as spoken across India, Pakistan, greater South Asia and the 30Million+ Desi Diaspora) using roman script and develop & promote a neutral writing style as exemplified by Bollywood and popular media. We're of the opinion that; "The real value and significance of Hindi-Urdu is in its being the Lingua Franca of the South Asian Subcontinent which is home to 400+ language subgroups, using 16+ distinct writing systems; It is gross injustice and disservice to limit its role and scope with communal/national contaminations." Regardless of any political and communal sensitivities, the case for Hamari Boli is primarily motivated by the Utilitarian principle i.e "Maximum Good for the Maximum Numbers". 'Enabling Open Text Collaboration' Being the Desi Lingua franca, Hamari Boli (natural Hindi-Urdu in Roman) is the only option to reach all Desis equally. However, the crippling Devanagari-Nastaliq Digraphia renders any kind of Opensource collaboration IMPOSSIBLE among Devanagari/Nastaliq/Roman writers unless each collaborator knows all three scripts. Hamari Boli resolves the dilemma by using neutral Roman script to create equally accessible opensource content and thus, for the first time, enables 'Open Collaboration' among the whole range of Devanagari-Nastaliq-Roman readers & writers. 'Status recognition' Just like Mandarin, Hamari Boli is the most widely spoken and used language in the Indo-Pak subcontinent and With 1Billion+ speakers worldwide, ranks only 2nd to Mandarin. Just as Arabic is the language of the Arab World, Hamari Boli is the lingua franca of the Desi World. Not just Indo-Pak but entire South Asia indeed i.e. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives, Mauritius, Srilanka, Afghanistan and the 30Mn+ Desi Diaspora worldwide. The very name "Hamari Boli" (Our Langauge) is neither Shudh Hindi nor Saaf Urdu and brings an air of familiarity for all desis and reinforces the idea of it being "The Desi Lingua Franca". We are of the opinion that the politically motivated division of The Hindustani Language as Hindi & Urdu was an epic injustice and disservice to the language and 1Billion+ speakers.The deliberate disseverance of literary canon, forced sanskritization and persianization, super-enforced with extreme digraphia has only resulted in depriving the speakers of almost half of their very own linguistic heritage! We believe that the artificial Hindi-Urdu divide is detrimental to public interest as it severely limits the reach and accessibility of the language. The peculiar brands of Hindi and Urdu (the so-called 'Standard') manufactured as national languages in India and Pakistan since partition are patently un-natural as they do not represent the language as it is held by the people but are solely based on the establishments' ideal of the national language. The interest of the people will be far better served if the efforts and money being wasted on addressing either of the two scripts are invested in creating and promoting content accessible to all Hindi-Urdu speakers alike. Testimony to the argument is the fact that both 'Official Hindi' and 'Official Urdu' can only be found in text books and official speeches. Popular Hindi-Urdu is essentially the same (except for the script) across India & Pakistan (and among the worldwide Desi diaspora) and that is what we call Hamari Boli, the lingua franca of the Desi People! 'Bridging the English Medium / Hindi-Urdu Medium Apartheid' Worst victim of the unholy divide is the public education system, particularly in North India & Pakistan, where on one hand, the ruling elite have deliberately kept Hindi and Urdu -and all other regional languages- fossilized in the name of faux nationalism and on the other, created 'several' parallel English-medium schooling systems that ensure that the best positions always go to the elite, middle order to middle-class and only lower level to Hindi/Urdu medium masses.. Any attempts at reform and modernization are always frowned upon, with zealots going as far as denouncing any efforts as anti-national and thus Hindi and Urdu are condemned to remain forever stunted and identified with social and economic backwardness. The hegemony is so pervasive that even private initiatives, where there can be no establishment influence are marred by linguistic chauvinism of Hindi and Urdu zealots. Hindi and Urdu Wikipedias are live evidence of what is being done with Hindi and Urdu, both use some alien language that nobody speaks! being a voluntary undertaking, Wikipedia relies on the good sense of the language community. in case of Hindi and Urdu, the conditioning has been so effective that the very people that should be changing things have self-appointed themselves as defenders of status-quo. What good is an encyclopedia if no one can understand it? The same thing that happened to our text books is now happening to open-source, both Hindi and Urdu Wikipedias are largely advertising the 'Official Story' instead of dispassionate objective truth that is the Wiki standard. This is like an absolute mockery of the open-knowledge idea! 'The Open Opportunity' We believe that the digital age has presented us Desis with an unprecedented opportunity in the form of "Instructional Media + Educational Technology + Open-Source Content Production & Delivery Model" which is inherently immune to establishment bias and most suitable for filtering status-quo lies with dispassionate, non-partisan scholarly analysis. Uncontaminated Objective Truth is 'Key' to dissolving propaganda induced prejudices and thus we must leverage Open-Source to the fullest to create lasting regional peace & harmony in South Asia. We're keenly working towards creating a framework and pronounced impetus for open-content in Hamari Boli, which in turn will also hopefully inspire similar initiatives in other Desi languages. One loftiest long-term goal of the HB Initiative is a Hamari Boli Wikipedia :) Indo-Pak conflict is the most explosive nuclear threat today. A major problem in bilateral relations is extremely negative sentiments among common-folk, largely due to establishment propaganda & lack of popular interaction. Cross border travel is a nightmare, due to state policies. A nonpolitical cross border P-to-P platform is vital to enable maximum people interact freely. The Open-Source approach will also enable large-scale People-to-People Communication and Collaboration. Better public acquaintance will result in reduced negative sentiments & reduced support for militarism. What are we doing & How are we doing it? Large initiative '1. Hamari Boli Wiki''' The Open platform where all the A) Hamari Boli Wiktionary (HB.Wiktionary.Org): Roman Hindi-Urdu is already in vogue and the newer generations are all comfortable using it on web, IMs and SMS -Indians & Pakistanis send over 100Million SMSs daily in Roman-. However, the problem is that there's no standardization and for any standard to be widely agreed upon, there needs to be significant content in it. What better than a Dictionary? Dictionary is also the ideal first project for the obvious reason that it has the most popular appeal. There are over 120Million internet users in the region (and 30Million+ diaspora) and Google Trends reports 5Million+ 'Dictionary' related searches each month from Indo-Pak! The numbers are only expected to grow in foreseeable future. Who wouldn't just love quality, free dictionaries :) Therefore, our first undertaking is the Hamari Boli Dictionaries Project. A not-for-profit social venture, implementation and operation is planned as a wiki-based collaborative to which any one with net access can contribute. the idea is to compile Hamari Boli Dictionaries (Eng-to-HB, HB-to-Eng, HB-to-HB, HB-to-Major World Languages, HB-to-Major Regional Languages) and publish in collaboration with Wikimedia Foundation at hb.Wikitionary.org under Creative Commons! Having words and meanings of words from both modern Hindi and Urdu in roman script, readers of both Devanagari and Perso-Arabic scripts will benefit equally. For example, the entry for "Knowledge" will be; Knowledge = Ilm = Daanish = Idraak = Vidyaa = Gyaan As above, the full range of Hindi-Urdu is being brought together. All English words will have all meanings in Hindi and Urdu. By using the Roman alphabet, it will be accessible to both Nastaliq and Devanagari readers and will also be an invaluable resource for new learners of Hamari Boli (Hindi-Urdu)We intend to seed version 1.0 with 10k words. Depending on community interest and volunteer contribution, the dictionary will keep on expanding like Wikitionary (English Wikitionary at en.wikitionary.org now boasts 2 million plus entries!). New features like mobile dictionaries, human pronunciation, etymologies, part of speech, synonyms, antonyms etc and support for regional Desi languages and other major world languages will be added in later versions. B) Desi Peace Stimulus The decades long Indo-Pak animosity is the result of cunning cultivation of enmity thru Education and Media by theestablishment and the political class. Large scale People-to-People interaction and correct knowledge of history willlead to a sea-change in popular sentiment, ultimately leading to logical Indo-Pak friendship and greater South Asianpeace & prosperity. With 1.7 Billion people, South Asia is one of the fastest growing economic regions with more than60% population under 25. More than 60% mobile penetration and IT is booming everywhere. India is one of the BRICSnations, and since 2000s, the general economic growth have created a very large urban middle class that is eager tochange old politics, willing to look beyond the status quo, optimistic about the fruits of modernization and economicgrowth and also ever more equipped with tools to voice their opinion and drive large-scale social and economicchange. However, the nascent phenomenon needs to be carefully nurtured , facilitated and channeled into a PanSouth Asian People-to-People Communication & Collaboration Initiative for greater regional peace and economicdevelopment. C) Long-term Roadmap App Suite: Complete Applications Suite for seamless & effortless 1-click Dictionary lookup aross devices and operating systems with apps for Mobiles, iPads/Tablets, iPhones etc Desi Language Labs: Specializing in language localization software tools and services for organizations, companies, institutions and governments. Open Desi Initiative: As affirmed above, one of the overarching objectives of the Hamari Boli Initiative is to address the Indo-Pak Education Emergency. We believe that the traditional modes, methods and channels of education are bloated with establishment propaganda and all kind of other bureucratic non-sense. Still almost entirely neglected in Indo-Pak, free, open-source textbooks like FlexBooks, content like Wikipedia, Instructional Media & evalutation tech like the Khan Academy are most promising approaches to ensure same quality education to everyone, everywhere at a fraction of cost and hassle than what the traditional system requires. That is what we hope to accomlish under the ODI banner over next three years with; Desi Educators Network: An Online platform for educators, academics, social entrepreneurs, policy makers, students and parents to collaborate towards developing and distributing open-source curricula for primary and secondary students in South Asia. Open-source Text Books: A hybrid of FlexBooks and Wikibooks models. Neatly organized in curricula format and freely available via internet. Written in a "Modernized Hamari Boli" these textbooks will be arranged such that teachers and students following various primary & secondary curricula will be able to find all material required to master respective curriculum. Initial focus will be completing all subjects for Primary and Secondary standards in Hamari Boli. HB Books will in turn inspire and galvanize similar initiatives among other Desi languages Language Learning: Proficiency in English language is almost a must for a successful academic and professional career anywhere in South Asia. In recent years, English teaching has become a very profitable business and hundreds of thousands of students spend countless money and efforts into learning it thru overcharged books/media and so-called 'Language Institutes' mushrooming everywhere. We'll be developing free, open-source books, instructional media (videos, animations etc) and testing platform in Hamari Boli for all Desi learners. Same model will be replicated rightafter for Hamari Boli learning material Khan Academy HamariBoli: Complete Khan Academy Platform i.e. Learning/Teaching + Testing + Evaluation + Reporting will be ported in Hamari Boli, accessible free 24x7 @ KhanAcademy.HamariBoli.com HamariBoli Wikipedia: Hamari Boli as the 7th Offcial UN Language What The Money Is For?As evident from details, the larger Hamari Boli Initiative is a very long ranging enterprise requiring lots and lots of resources in the long-run. Therefore, we have divided our roadmap among successive milestones and phases. This fundraiser is started to set the ship sailing with Phase-I, more specifically, the money raised thru this fundraiser will go towards the development and delivery of; English-to-HamariBoli Dictionary: v1.0, Compilation, Digitization and Publishing of 10,000 words at HB.Wiktionary.Org Development & distribution of 1-Click Desktop Dictionary Look-up Application for offline and program independent access to above published dictionary (similar to www.Babylon.com) What If The Campaign Doesn't Meet $12k Goal? We also plan to develop and publish open-source Hamari Boli learning courses at Wikibooks.org Hamari Boli Wikipedia: Khan Academy Hamari Boli is another major undertaking taken under How can you Help? Well by 'Contributing' of course :) We understand that not everyone is able to donate, but word of mouth can go a long way. Share this with your friends, Like us on Facebook, Follow on Twitter and help us reach most by; Posting this campaign to your social networks like Facebook & Twitter, Blog about us (dont forget to send us a link and we'll publish your piece at Peace.HamariBoli.com). If this campaign meets the $12k goal, we'll not only be able to smoothly execute and deliver Phase-I but it will also enable us to demonstrate to Institutions and Foundations that the world needs this and wants us to carry-on! Foundations, Organizations, Academic Institutions Future Ambitions:Desktop, Mobile, iPad apps for seamless access across devices, online & offline. Devanagari-Roman-Transliteration engines for effortless transcription of Devanagari/Nastaliq/Roman texts to and from any of the 3 scripts at the click of a button. Hamari Boli Wikipedia (Translation of English wiki) Other areas such as literary events, Desi news and blogs, film festivals, writing contests, collective book writing initiatives and several others are being actively explored.who are we? Recommended Readings Why must you support us? Open Invitation for Open Collaboration Latest activity Category:Browse Category:Browse Category:Browse Category:Browse